Lennox Lewis

[Gwalyn]

Did any of you hear Lennox's statement about his next fight that the only person that interests him right now is Mike Tyson and he can retire because he is the "emperor of boxing". What kind of crap is that. The "champ" is ducking the real contenders because he is afraid. Threatening to retire when there are legitimate contenders made me lose alot of respect. Fight the Klitchko brothers you punk ass bitch!!!

[Jets80]

Well said.

[sabotai]

You don't become the emporer of boxing unless you hold the major belts (he's got 1) and you defend them for awhile. He's done neither. His record as a champ is...not good. And he hasn't fought anyone. Lewis, imo, is one of the worst champions in quite awhile. Not in terms of talent, but in terms of who he picks for opponents. It's just....pathetic.

[HornedFrog Purple]

Lennox is a paper champ. People said the same thing about Holmes but the one thing he did do was fight his #1 contender. Lewis has had maybe 2 reputable defenses of his title(s) when he fought Holyfield who was not himself anymore.

He is all about the money now. He made this big hoopla about unifying the heavyweight title then just gives them up.

Vitaly is sueing Lewis by the way but I doubt that will go anywhere.

[TroyF]

I guess I'll be the one to disagree. I really don't think he has had any real peers over the past few years. Much of this is due to things he can't control.

He can't control the fact Holyfield is washed up. The fact that Tyson is a shell of his former self. That the rest of the heavyweight division is pathetic.

I heard people say he'd get destroyed by Tyson because he was a paper champ. . . we all saw how well that worked out. Lennox isn't the greatest of all time, nobody could seriously debate that.

He's clearly the best heavy of "his" time, and I'm not sure how that can be disputed. Outside of a brief period after the Rahman fight, Lewis has been heavyweight champ sinse 1997. Vlad might whip him up one side the street and down the other. . . but after having wached him fight, I think he needs more work before he's ready for Lennox. Just my opinion, I could be wrong. :)

TroyF

[sabotai]

What he can control is who he fights. He hides behind the excuse that people don't want to see the fight or that there isn't enough money in it.

(I may get the organization wrong here....) He had the IBF title, the IBF says Chris Byrd is the #1 contender and that he has to fight Byrd. So what does he do? He doesn't fight him and he gets stripped of the IBF title. To me, a real champion doesn't do this. A real champion fights all challengers, not just the ones he can make a ton of money off of.

[rkmsuf]

I don't get the sense Lewis is all that interested in fighting...he's a good heavyweight but honestly isn't anything special...

[HornedFrog Purple]

Lennox has fought two #1 contenders for any of his belts since 1997. I contend the only reason he is champ is because all the guys he came up with beat each other up and he outlasted them.

Besides calling himself "emperor" is ridiculous considering he made this huge deal about how he saved the heavyweight division by unifying all the belts, then turns around and forfeits the IBF title to Byrd because he was not getting paid enough.

Paper champ.

[Gwalyn]

From what I understand the lawsuit filed by Vitaly has been shelved stating that his lawyers mishandled some paperwork and to make a long story short must fight Holyfield to determine the number #1 contender.

Another fantastic Lewis quote.

"Mike Tyson is the biggest fight out there for me," Lewis told BBC radio. "At this point I am not really excited about anyone."

[sabotai]

Lewis was the undisputed champion for less than a year.

He won all 3 on Nov 13, 1999. He fought Micheal Grant (won KO in Rnd 2) on Apr 29, 2000. The WBA did not recongnize this fight as a title fight, since Lewis signed a contract that said he had to face their #1 contender before fighting someone else. He did not and was stripped of the title.

Holyfield won this title in the first fight with Ruiz. Ruiz won the rematch and as we all know, Ruiz just lost it to Jones Jr.

Lewis went on to beat Botha and Tua. He lost the IBF and WBC titles to Rahman, and then won then back. Then he won against Tyson.

The IBF told Lewis he had to fight Byrd or vacate the belt. He vacated the belt.

Twice Lewis decided to vacate a belt because he didn't want to face someone. Doesn't sound like some kind of emporer to me.

EDIT: Lewis was supposed to fight Vitaly on Apr 13. Wouldn't it be cool if the WBC stripped Lewis of his title for backing out of this fight? I'd laugh my ass off. :)